Diocesan Annual Appeal Making Some Progress

 The Diocesan Annual Appeal is making progress toward its goal, but still remains behind schedule compared to this time a year ago.

A Progress Report on Dec. 1 showed pledges of $4,111,332. Last year at this time, $4,285,152 had been pledged. The Appeal is now 3.9 percent below its target at this point. In a report published in the Nov. 17 issue of The Light, the campaign was 4.5 percent behind.

Bishop Joseph F. Martino addressed the situation in a letter that was to be read at all Masses the weekend of Nov. 19-20. He stressed the importance of the Appeal, and asked the faithful to make a pledge or consider increasing a previous gift.

Since then the Appeal has received nearly 400 new pledges, and a number of supporters have increased the amount of their original contributions.

“I recognize that we are in a difficult environment for raising money, and I truly appreciate how hard our priests and parishioners are working to achieve our goal,” Bishop Martino said. “I am confident that we will be successful.”

Ernest G. Pappa, director of the Appeal, said he is encouraged by the response over the past few weeks. He also cited some individual examples:

-- Several people went out of their way to come in or phone and increase their pledge by $500 or more.

-- A person from Berwick, not in our Diocese, sent $500 because he enjoys CTV: Catholic Television so much and wanted to support it.

-- A $10,000 pledge was received.

-- One gentleman drove two hours to bring in a $1,000 pledge that would put his parish over goal.

“There are so many generous, caring people in our Diocese who understand the critical importance of the Appeal and will go the extra mile to help us,” Mr. Pappa said.

The Appeal supports numerous parish ministries; marriage and family life programs; pro-life activities; communication efforts such as CTV: Catholic Television and The Catholic Light; Diocesan schools and religious education programs; and clergy formation and retirement.

Some of those programs could face cutbacks if the Appeal falls short of its goal of $4.4 million. The campaign usually achieves its goal by the middle of December.

“We believe that, as in the past, our people will come through and take us over goal, even if that occurs somewhat later than usual,” Mr. Pappa said.

As of Dec. 1, 60 parishes had reached or exceeded their goal, compared with 67 at this time last year. The complete Progress Report listing each parish is included here and is published in the Dec. 8 edition of The Catholic Light.